New York Times Best-Selling Author Selects Five Winners of 'Best Adventure to Experience Before You Die' Competition

    TORONTO, ON, March 18, 2010 /24-7PressRelease/ -- New York Times best-selling author Patricia Schultz (1,000 Places To See Before You Die) has chosen the five winners of the 'Best Adventure to Experience Before You Die' challenge, a satellite competition run in conjunction with Gap Adventures' highly-successful Create Your Own Adventure contest (www.createyourownadventure.com).

The winning entries originated from a wide array of countries including the United States, New Zealand, Norway and Poland and covered destinations in China, Mongolia, Europe, India and Morocco. Create Your Adventure, the largest and most ambitious interactive competition ever staged by Gap Adventures, has garnered immense interest from around the globe with more than 13,000 entries from 99 countries on six continents in five weeks. The contest has also attracted a total of 90,000 online visitors from 165 countries.

"The five winners expressed amazing creativity in the itineraries they created," said Schultz, who will also help select the winner of the wider Create Your Own Adventure contest. "I easily sensed their passion for these exciting destinations and was impressed with their research and logistical ingenuity to create some truly unforgettable itineraries--all of which are definitely worth experiencing before any of us die."

The five winners--who will be awarded a $500 US Gap Adventures travel voucher, as well as a personalized copy of 1,000 Places to See Before You Die--are:

'Shifting sands, changing minds' by Laura Walch (United States) http://createyourownadventure.com/tour/oAas1dMmWuxi/

'Shangri-La' by Christopher Cilfone (United States) http://createyourownadventure.com/tour/jroRWF834jOJ/

'Lifelong Dream Time' by Trish Heikoop (New Zealand) http://createyourownadventure.com/tour/qYTVzi0wpzsh/

'In the Wild, Wild East - Russia & Mongolia' by Magdalena Bober (Poland) http://createyourownadventure.com/tour/qygt2HPQLQGk/

'The Mystery' by Morten Nielsen (Norway) http://createyourownadventure.com/tour/uOMq2DMMDvOi/

The Create Your Own Adventure contest invites everyone from once-a-year vacationers to seasoned globetrotters to submit an itinerary for the tour of their dreams, virtually anywhere in the world, virtually any way they want. Everyone with a winning tour idea can log on to www.createyourownadventure.com and use the customized itinerary engine to build their dream trip. The deadline for submissions is March 31, 2010 and the creator of the winning tour will have the opportunity to experience their adventure along with two lucky friends.

For more information, visit www.gapadventures.com

About Patricia Schultz
Patricia Schultz is the author of the international bestsellers 1,000 Places to See Before You Die (now with nearly 3 million copies in print and translated into 25 languages) and 1,000 Places to See in the USA and Canada Before You Die. A veteran travel journalist with 25 years of experience, she has written for Frommer's, Berlitz and Access travel guides, as well as BusinessWeek, Oprah and Real Simple. She also executive-produced a Travel Channel television show based on her book, 1,000 Places To See Before You Die. Her home base is New York City.

About Gap Adventures
Gap Adventures is a world leader in the adventure travel industry offering small group adventures on all seven continents and beyond to more than 100,000 global travellers annually. The award-winning trips, which focus on culture, nature and active travel, are ideal for those with a sense of adventure - people who want to leave the beaten path and authentically immerse themselves in a local culture or environment to experience the real world in a sustainable manner. Demonstrating its ongoing cultural, social and economic commitment to responsible tourism, Gap Adventures established the Planeterra Foundation, as a way the company and its passengers can give back to the communities visited. For more information, please visit www.gapadventures.com and www.planeterra.org

Media Contact:
Marie Anne MacRae
Business Development & Media Relations Manager
Gap Adventures
Direct: 416 263-4675
[email protected]

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